Embryonic Stem Cell Research Enables Another Medical Breakthrough

Rudolf Jaenisch. SOURCE: AP.

In the first demonstrated therapeutic application of induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers have cured sickle-cell anemia in mice. Rudolf Jaenisch, one of the authors of the paper announcing the work pointed out to the Washington Post that this achievement means that research on human embryonic stem cells must go forward:

All the progress in this field was only possible because we had embryonic stem cells to work with first… We need to make more ES cells and really define which are going to be the best ones for different applications.

Hurdles to adapting the therapy for humans are similar to those discussed two weeks ago when two papers announced the development of human iPS cells. Chief among them is finding vehicles for inserting new genes into skin cells, “reprogramming” them, that do not induce tumor growth.

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